


The Gravity of the Situation

by Tuiteyfruity



Series: The XenoArcheology Society [1]
Category: Original Work, The XenoArcheology Society
Genre: F/F, Lesbians in Space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 20:43:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8860357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tuiteyfruity/pseuds/Tuiteyfruity
Summary: Teri and Milly are on assignment and make an amazing discovery!An original science fiction story about XenoArcheologist girlfriends.Enjoy!





	

**Author's Note:**

> For reference’s to character’s appearances in terms of height, build, and skin color: Milly looks like Simone Biles [[Link](http://cdn4.thr.com/sites/default/files/2015/07/simone_biles_h_15.jpg)] who is 4’9”, and Teri looks like Karsta Lowe [[Link](http://ww2.legavolleyfemminile.it/photogallery/pg678/RUB_1170.jpg)] who is 6’4”. Except Teri and Milly are about a decade older than the olympians. 
> 
> (see end notes for more on character appearances, and shout outs)

“Stardate 93663.81, Expedition Number 7Ψ689ζ22ΩIΠ, day 16, morning- Dr. Teri Piser of the Xenoarcheology Society membership number ΡΞΞΓΛUDΦMI6Σ. Accompanied by Millicent Falkenauer membership number QX9EI4PSQKBF. The schedule for the day is as follows: continue with outlined plan to investigate the cause and origin of gravitational anomalies detected on the planet Ziopra. No evidence has yet been found to explain said anomalies”

“Ter, why do you have to do this so early? I can hear you from inside the tent.”

Teri, who had been walking around the freshly lit camp-fire as she recorded her log, faced her girlfriend from across the pit. Teri was dressed in a silver jumpsuit, the standard temperate weather expedition tech-enhanced uniform, and her long shimmering blue hair was tied up in a neatly braided bun. Milly was in pajamas, a onesie which had cartoon characters on them, and her dazzling green hair had taken on the shape of one of the cartoon characters.

“It’s an hour past second sun-up, you stayed up late again,” said Teri.

“I went to sleep before you!”

“Really?” Teri was sure she had gone to sleep first.

"Yes! You were writing the night log!"

“We each have to complete the log twice daily, if we don’t it’s not science, and if it’s not science it’s not official, and if it’s not official you can’t use it to get your degree,”

“I already have a masters-”

“And if you don’t keep the log we don’t get paid,” Teri continued louder.

“Fine” said Milly, she fished her PADD out of the tent, held it close to her face, and looked at Teri.

“Falkenauer Log, Day 16, we have been in the forest for over two weeks and Teri looks as hot as on day one, and to clarify, that was the last day we had running water.”

“Awww, thanks, Babe,” said Teri, “but don’t submit that, you have to submit a real log.”

“Hey, my logs are the ones that will make us famous if... no, when they make a movie about our lives.”

“Glad you have that much faith in us,” said Teri

“Hey, it’s only been 16 days, we just have to find the source of the spatial anomalies, then we get to hire a team to help us excavate it!”

“Well it hasn’t happened yet! No one else found anything here! We’re not going to get a team because we aren’t going to find anything” snapped Teri.

Something was up. Milly got to her feet and walked over to Teri, looking up into her eyes. They were like diamonds harvested from the centers of collapsed stars.

“Why are you acting like this, Ter? You’re acting like me, you’re supposed to the be optimistic one, not me, and it’s hard! How do you do it all the time?”

“I took this project because it was the only one left,”

“So? Having a project is better than not,”

“Not for a first rate archeologist. I usually get first pick! Just, the last few times, the project I’ve picked have…”

“Been failures?”

“Not exactly how I would have put it, more like, dead ends, so this time I got the deadest end of them all, no one expects us to find anything”

“What?”

Teri started shaking.

“The committee… they… they…”

Two-heads-taller than Milly, Teri was suddenly one head shorter, having sat down fast and without warning. Her head was in her hands, and she was sobbing.

“Ter?”

“They called it the garbage project.” she cried, “The garbage project! Which is also what people have started to call the projects I work on when I apply for funding.”

“No.”

“Yep.”

“Bastards!”

That got a laugh in between sobs, but one humorously timed profane word wasn’t going to solve the big problem. They needed to get results. Even if the result is that the anomalies are nothing; their job was to solve the mystery, not discover something. A discovery would be great, it would mean they would get more funding next time, it would mean their next assignment would be desirable.

“Teri, you’re tired, you can’t work like this! Go back to sleep, I’ll set things up for today,”

“I’m not t-“ she yawned and could not finish her statement “ok fine, and thanks,” said Teri, kissing Milly on the lips, then standing up and kissing her on the forehead.

“Sleep!”

\----

Teri woke up refreshed and to find Milly in the PLATO (Portable Lab And Tent Office), which was really just a bigger, sturdier tent with some small desks in it. Every surface was covered in paper, every computer screen was lit up, all displaying maps or charts. Milly had changed out of her pajamas and wore her rugged, layered “explorer’s” outfit complete with the dusty sandy color, except it was slightly rocker-style.

“Am I the first geologist brought on this project!?”

“No, also archeologists take many of the same classes as geologists, and I think they brought in some physicists,”

“So the data came back as ‘nothing here’ and they believed it? I’m guessing none of them were pilots”

“I- yes? What are you saying? Are you saying they missed something?”

“I’m saying they missed something,” Milly smiled.

\----

“Now can you tell me what they missed?” Teri yelled over the HoverCraft’s engine.

They were speeding through the forest, the crisp wind in their faces. Teri had tied her hair up but Milly’s wasn’t that long, and let it flow behind her like a river of shimmering algae. Because of Teri’s nap they were low on daylight and had to move fast. Thankfully Milly had a mind for maps and was almost a human GPS (galactic positioning system).

“The scanners reported they found nothing because they thought they saw nothing. The scanners automatically compensate for background noise, the problem is the background noise wasn’t background noise. I looked at the raw data, and a lot of scans had the same strange signal pattern, which was just so faint that they were mistaken for noise. But I recognized it, it was similar to a the signal a cloaking device gives out.”

“You mean,” said Teri, sitting up a bit straighter.

“Whatever is causing the anomalies is shielded! There is something underground, and someone doesn’t want anyone to find it”

“And you think that’s what’s causing the anomalies?” Teri asked.

“I’d bet money on it,” said Milly.

They touched down in a small clearing and set up the equipment. Long, metal rods,that drilled themselves halfway into the ground had to be distributed in a specific pattern to share the information each would get from scans to build a proper picture. Then Milly opened her computer and started up the scanning software. She had already programmed in the cloaking pattern, but it had to be calibrated to current ground density and sensor pattern.

“Can you move scanner E4, 3 decimeters at 23degrees?” said Milly, not looking up from the screen.

Teri pulled the sensor from the ground and moved it as directed.

“Hm…”

“What did you say?” asked Teri.

“Nothing, but something is off and that should have fixed it; the sensor might need to be manually re-calibrated.”

She stood up and tool box in hand, walked to the sensor, ready to open it up and do a hard reset. She glanced at the sensor’s screen: it showed no problems. That didn’t mean there wasn’t one.

“YEOWCH!”

The electric shock Milly received upon touching the sensor was so great her hair stood on end and her arm went fuzzy with numbness. The air itself tasted a bit electric. Teri was looking away from Milly, eyes wide. The world was distorted.

An anomaly was occurring, and they were in the middle of it.

Then the ground caved in.

\-----

Walking, they were walking. Feeling their way through a cave that should not have been there. Neither of them were thinking straight, and most of their supplies were above ground, not even a blaster between them. Even with all their training they were not prepared for gravitational anomalies that opened up a hole beneath their feet, then sealed it again. Both of them were injured, though without having turned on a light neither knew to what extent, but Teri had taken a worse fall. Right now the goal was to find a spot to sit down.

Eventually the ground became level, and Teri sat up against a wall. She had hit her head in the fall, and then several times while walking, the ceiling was not very high. Milly was having no trouble, being so short, so she cautiously investigated their surroundings.

She took a deep breath to clear her head. The air was still; that probably meant it was in limited supply.

The first thing she noticed was this was not a natural cave. If she had to guess, it was part of a building. The walls were smooth, if one accounted for age; they were possibly made of metal. Then she felt something that was definitely a door, or at least a window. But hell if she had any idea how to open it.

“I don’t think we will be able to fill out the log for tonight,”

Teri chuckled then winced

“Don’t be silly I have a back up PADD,” said Teri, “It just can’t send a strong enough signal to call for help.”

“You’re incredible, we have a perfect excuse not to do the log!”

“Come on, we can do it together,”

She had already turned the PADD on. Power Saver Mode, no light up screen, all Teri had to do was hold the power button and talk like one would with a walkie-talkie.

“Stardate 93663.81, night- Dr. Teri Piser of the Xenoarcheology Society membership number ΡΞΞΓΛUDΦMI6Σ. Accompanied by Millicent Falkenauer membership number QX9EI4PSQKBF. Expedition Number 7Ψ689ζ22ΩIΠ, day 16. The events for the day were as follows...”

“Milly and I…” she couldn’t continue, due to bursting into laughter.

“Milly and I,” she snorted, “we- we fell down a hole!"

Teri went quiet before continuing, not taking her finger off the power button,

“I don’t know if we will ever get out of here. Whether we do or don’t, whether this log is read by my superiors, by those assigned to archiving the events leading up to our deaths, or by some future archeologists discovering our tomb, let this log show that Millicent Falkenauer is the best girlfriend in the explored galaxy, though I would bet money she is the best in the universe. She is so supportive, and so strong, and I am lucky to have her with me now.”

She removed her finger from the power button.

“You’re crying,” Teri noted.

“No I’m not!”

“Yes you are, I can tell,”

“It’s pitch black in here!”

“I can smell the increased salinity of the air in hear,” asserted Teri, but to be sure she leaned closer to Milly’s face.

“You can not! That’s humanly impossible!”

“Well I can smell something!”

“You-,” Milly stopped crying and blew her nose into her elbow. Her sinuses clear, she took a deep breath. The air which had been stagnant and dusty, smelt of salt, it smelt of electricity.

Teri turned on the PADD properly. They took in the corridor for a moment, down the way they came was stone, it was uneven, and it was dark. It transitioned to smoothed surfaces until where they sat, up against a grey wall with a door. It didn’t have a handle, but there was a surface where one would put their hand. Something was happening behind it, distorting it. Another anomaly.

Without consulting Teri, Milly stood up and slapped her hand on the surface next to the door.

It came to life and slid open

\----

“No way, no way, no way!” said Teri

“I don’t recognize that design, this wasn’t made by any civilization we’ve encountered,” said Milly.

 

Teri and Milly stood at the railing of a catwalk that overlooked a massive underground hanger that held what was unmistakably a space ship. A large one. It had been hidden underground for god only knew how long, shielded. The only recognizable parts were the warp nacelles, which were humming, and sputtering. As they stood there, lights turned on, the place was coming to life.

“Well, we discovered what was causing the anomalies,” said Teri, “The combination of the warp drive and the cloak disguising the existence of this place, the interference between how each manipulates space, it’s amazingly simple! I can’t believe no one knew this was here! How old must this place be? Hundreds of years? Thousands?”

Milly was no longer looking at the ship, she had spotted something more useful.

“Command center, over there, we can use it to send a signal for help!”

And she dragged Teri into the room, and then froze.

“You don’t know how to use any of this stuff, I don’t recognize any of this stuff,” said Teri.

“No, this place, it’s receiving a signal, right now. A distress signal, I’m sure of it,” said Milly.

Teri gasped

“It all makes sense. This place has been dormant, until the signal came, probably a few years ago since that was when the anomalies started, and the ship was trying to turn itself on and follow it.” she said, “Follow it… to the people who built it, who may or may not still be alive depending on when this signal was sent.”

“I’m guessing not alive, I can’t understand much of what’s on these screens but if those are dates and times, the message was sent at least a thousand years before being received. Probably supposed to be sent by subspace, but wasn’t. It also had coordinates.”

“A long dead civilization! Imagine the things we could find! Oh I hope some bodies were preserved! We have to know at least what they looked like!”

“Archaeologists are the only people allowed to get excited about finding dead bodies!”

\----

Dr. Dunkerton was sitting at his desk, enjoying his lunch before his next meeting with more people begging for grant money.

Then an email notification popped up on his computer screen. It was from Teri Piser, which he would have ignored except this had a video attachment. He read the email first.

“Dear Dr. Dunkerton

Milly an I are proud to inform you we have completed the assignment. We discovered the anomalies were caused by interference between a warp drive starting up and a cloaking device. The cloaking device had been hiding the ship in its underground hanger for thousands of years. The ship had been auto-activated when it received a distress signal a few years ago. Unfortunately, us discovering the hanger disabled the shield and the ship was finally able to free itself.

It was clearly going to go find the people who sent the signal. It had to be followed. We found a second smaller hanger with an even older ship, one we could fly, and well, there was just enough time to stop at our camp to gather up supplies before the main ship took off.

Sincerely,

Dr. Teri Piser”

Those women were going to be the death of him. He was almost too angry to open the video. They had gone off to follow an unknown space ship into likely unexplored space! With no back up!

He took a sip of his soda and opened the video.

 

Teri and Milly appeared on his screen sitting at the helm of an alien space ship, Milly was stretched across Teri’s lap. That didn’t phase Dunkterton. Milly was never one for professionalism.

“Hey Dr. Dunkerton, Teri here, the assignment is complete, and I thought I would show you the ship we found. Oh, wait, I have to switch the camera!” said Teri, and she pressed a button.

The screen switched to display a space ship. Its nacelles were getting brighter, it was about to go to warp.

“I’m sure you will want to send support ships, so I’m sending you our warp signature so they can follow us! The reward money for our discovery should cover the costs of the ships!”

[At least she gave this some thought, thought Dunkerton]

“We have plenty of food, Milly found the food replicators. Now, the ship was responding to a distress signal, but if Milly is correct”

“And I usually am!”

“It was thousands of years old, so I don’t expect we are flying into battle, but you never know!”

“We’re going to warp, Ter! Godspeed Dunkerton!”

She clearly meant to end the video there but hit the wrong button, Milly leaned towards the screen, looking at something Dr. Dunkerton couldn’t see.

“Babe, I located the crew’s quarters. What do you think? Should we be the first living beings to use those beds in over a thousand ye-“

The signal cut off with a close up of Milly’s smiling face.

 

\-----

[What will happen to Milly and Teri? Did they have awesome sex in space? Well duh! Will they find the civilization? what will they find there? war? death? something else? To find out, tune in next time!]

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment :D 
> 
> I posted this on my [tumblr](http://jewishdragon.tumblr.com/post/154524256971/the-gravity-of-the-situation-tuiteyfruity) and would love a reblog! 
> 
> This story was written for a school assignment, but that doesn’t mean I wont write more. I love these characters and want to use them again! But only time will tell if I do. You can send me asks about the story and world on my [tumblr](jewishdragon.tumblr.com) to help me get ideas for more stories! This is a science fiction world, anything can happen on an expedition! 
> 
> [The characters in this story were inspired by [Janey-jane's](http://janey-jane.tumblr.com) amazing art of the dancing/humanized [Enterprise](http://janey-jane.tumblr.com/tagged/ballerina-enterprise) and [Millennium Falcon](http://janey-jane.tumblr.com/tagged/falconprise) depicted as girlfriends, and got her permission to base my characters on them! (THANK YOU!!)]


End file.
